Paleo AKA Cavewoman Diet: It was tougher back then…at least to get food.

We have an upcoming Paleo Diet workshop next Wednesday the 8th here at SBFC @ 630 and we are fired up! Really because we get to share our way of life and the science that goes into living and eating in a way that is VERY congruent with YOUR genes and YOUR jeans. This diet closely follows our heritage as humans and we will be helping you understand why the foods you may be eating are keeping you from your GOALS. Get ready for your ancestors (older than grandma) to help you to the health and fitness you’ve been searching for. This diet is NOT about deprivation and will power, it is about understanding and listening to your body as well as making a few smarter choices, and the pay off is HUGE!! This is a way of life because who wants to only see their abs or fit into their jeans for a month, how about the rest of your life!! So next Wednesday we’ll help you understand how this will be different than other diets as well as make it easier to follow. Hope to see you there (its free, but please email Jen@sb-fc.com to reserve a spot)…. Below are a few tips to get you thinking and help you ease into the process.

ADD don’t Take Away

People often associate change with terrible loss, and that doesn’t have to be the case. 1st thing 1st let’s focus on being Sufficient in getting enough Pure foods and not focus on what bad stuff is in your diet. You can’t get to a positive by running from a negative, must go toward posive! (won’t ever be rich by trying not to be poor)

Fresh Fiber First

Eat a Fruit or a Veggie before every meal, this ensures that you will get the nutrients your innate genetics need to produce health and homeostasis in your body! Plus it will take some of the room in your stomach, so hopefully you won’t be able to fit as much of the bad stuff in ;-p.

Always Shop Full

The battle is won or lost at the point of purchase.

It is much easier to make logical decisions about what to purchase at the grocery store when we are stuffed. (not the best, but this is so important that you should be full even if you have to stuff yourself with less healthful food in order to get full before shopping. One bad meal sacrifice is better than repeat bad meals because you were in a crazed low blood-sugar state when shopping). We all know that if it makes its way into the basket, it is getting eaten.

Stay on the Periphery of the Store

That is where the live and healthy foods reside.

Real Food Goes Bad, if it doesn’t go Bad, it isn’t good for you

The more nutrients and health in a food, the more organisms want it. If bacteria doesn’t want your food, chances are, it isn’t food, and you should toss it.

Store food has been created to be stored, not to give you health, so try and avoid foods with labels or packaging.

These foods will go bad, and that is good!

Understand the Ingredients

Real food has real natural ingredients like blueberries and almonds. Fake food has natural flavorings to trick us and chemicals to preserve them like monosodiumdiaoxylglutamicfuranicmethylwhattheheck??? And natural flavorings (what the heck is natural flavorings??)

Keep the Ingredients List to 5 or Less

The more ingredients, the more man/woman has messed with the food, and therefore, the less likely it is a real food.

Ingredients: Apple

If it has a Health Claim, it Probably is NOT Healthy

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food explains that the loudest foods in the store (cereal boxes, dairy and juices) are often the most toxic, and the quietest foods in the store (fruits and veggies) are often the healthiest.

9. Evaluate Food on how you will feel AFTER you eat it, not before

It is absurd when you think about the 23 hours 57 minutes of pain, suffering and guilt you get when eating a donut/bigmac/pizza…etc for the 3 min of joy you get while eating it.

Think about what you would want to eat post work out, i.e. would you rather a big mac or a smoothie after jog?

10. There are NO Failures ONLY Feedback

Do not waste time or stress hormones on feeling guilty, look at what you eat in terms of choices with a goal of becoming healthier. This is not a diet, it is a way of life.

I hope this helps and best of luck to all of you. Know that we are in your corner; your success is our success. Please keep us informed of your successes and ask for help if you are struggling &/or need direction. Remember we are a team, and we are proud and grateful to be your health coaches.

After 3 whole years of living the Paleo/Crossfit lifestyle, I have FINALLY started reading “The Paleo Solution”….SHAME! SHAME!! I know…I know…at least I’m reading it NOW!

While I was scanning the book and flipping to the implementation chapter (I’m just not one for much “science”, haha)…I started wondering where in the book I could find information for:

-helping family members get started

-convincing them I’m not crazy….and to just try it for themselves for ONE month (I know you don’t think I’m crazy, but there has to be a littttttle bit of “that chick is whack” in your mind, or else I wouldn’t be writing this post )

-helping people understand that this is a lifestyle, and it may take some time (it’s not a shake that comes in all kinds of flavors and promises to make you lose 40 pounds in a month)

-Convincing family who live in places like, ohhh…Caribou, Maine…that regardless of produce selection, there ARE ways to go about this lifestyle.

Now mom, dad and Justin…this is NOT a pick-on-you sort of thing…at all! I GET that there is not as much of a selection up in the ‘Bou…I know this because when Nick and I go to visit, we stop in Portland, ME at the nearest Whole Foods for groceries…

…folks, Portland is 6 hours away…

I just want to be able to answer these kind of questions for ANYONE who may be feeling these things…especially for my family, because I want you to live a LONGGGGGG, happy life. Mom, maybe this will speak more to YOUR values…I want you to play for a LONGGG time with your future grand kids who are not in existence right now, but I KNOWWWW you’re really excited for… soon!!…from Justin )

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and contact the source!! I emailed Robb Wolf, and since Robb is a super busy guy, I got an email from his assistant, Chris. Here are some of the resources he provided me:

~ This is an AWESOME site called www.localharvest.org, in which you can plug in your town and there will be a list of local produce/meat/dairy farmers and providers in your neck of the woods for you to contact! Just for shits and giggles, I plugged in “Caribou, ME”: here is what I found (MOM!) :

~Of course there is always the option of the grocery store, and picking out the best that you can. Look for grass-fed, organic meats, and pasture-raised (or free-range) poultry. As far as eggs go, look for pasture-raised (or again, free-free, or cage-free) and organic eggs…always best, however, from a farmer so you can grill them on how they raise their chickens. Maybe I will do a follow up on what specific things to ask a farmer when looking for healthy meats and eggs…hmmm.

Finally, I often hear, “I just can’t eat that way…I just don’t know what to eat!”

Here’s a question for you, have you ever had bacon and eggs for breakfast? yes? How about a salad for lunch…? yeahhh? Okay, how about a steak and some veggies for dinner? YEAH?! Well, congratulations, you are bonified Paleo eater! Now…we just need to work on stringing them together!

Now guys, if you feel that this blog is talking right to you…it’s probably because it is…Take it this way, it means I super love you and want all of you to be as healthy as possible (this does not JUST include my family ps:). Since I’ve started this lifestyle I have gained an amount of health I didn’t even know was possible…so OF COURSE I want that for you as well!

If you live in the Santa Barbara area, and you just don’t have a flippin’ clue what I’m talking about with this Paleo Diet thing…you either,

a) have never read my blog before, or…

b) just still don’t know how to implement it.

If your answer was B, Nick and I are having a Paleo Diet workshop here at the office on August 8th at 6:30pm. We will talk about the what, the how and all the science and tips in between. Check us out August 8th at 6:30 at Santa Barbara Family Chiropractic (360 S. Hope Ave C100 in SB).

Feel free to shoot me an email (jen@thebeautifullystrong.com) if you have any questions that you don’t want everyone else to read!

I have been asked on numerous accounts why I am doing the candida diet. The number one (and probably ONLY reason) I started the candida diet is because (I’m going to get REALLY honest with you right now…) I have had digestive issues since college…

My senior year of college, shit hit the fan in my life (family, school, relationship,friendships, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, etc, etc…you know, the normal stuff!) and my poor body could only handle the stress I was going through by deciding to seize all function of my digestive system. I was in and out of specialists for a year (my lowest low was having an “examination” (digestive system…take a gander at where that exam was taken…) by a 70 year old man…lowwww low). I was drugged up, knocked out, and had the pleasure (*puke*) of experiencing my first ever colonoscopy at the ripe age of 22. The final diagnosis was IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). What’s a girl to do with that information??! I was terrified to eat ANYTHING; I was constantly full of fear. It got to a bad point where I was only eating about 500 calories a day (not on purpose…just because everything was making me sick!). That 500 calories usually came in the form of a Smart One (the broccoli and cheddar potatoes :-p).

I was CONSTANTLY on the lookout for some MAGIC PILL that would get rid of my digestive issues.

Through Nick I learned all about the Paleo diet, and it completely changed my world. I started exercising…uh duh, I think we know how that affected my world. I started getting adjusted. All three of these things have COMPLETELY changed my world for the better…including my digestive issues. I no longer FEAR eating (I am actually quite OBSESSED with it, thank you!) and I haven’t had an “episode” in a couple years. Phew!

So why the candida diet… well…while my guts are much happier, they are not 100% better. I have messed up my guts for the majority of my life…and while changing my diet, exercising and getting adjusted has stopped it from getting worse I’m sure…I have lost a LOT of integrity of my gut lining. In laymen’s terms: my guts are screwed. Presently :-p I was hoping that the candida diet would clean up the last of those bad bugs because since adding exercise to my life, my bad guts have posed a WHOLE other kind of problem…

If I, or anyone, is unable to keep their abs tight while doing Crossfit…you are essentially efffffffffffffed. There is WEIGHT you’re lifting, weird positions you’re getting into, high repetition of exercises, BURPEES, full extension of exercises…etc, etc. If you are unable to protect your spine during these exercises, you are GOING to get hurt…period. WELL…unfortunately, when you have inflamed guts due to something you ate, or bad bugs that are taking over your guts…you cannot properly protect your spine, and you get yourself in the predicament I have been putting myself in for the last year and a half…which is constantly hurting myself, over and over again.

Here’s where some venting comes in: people constantly ASSUME that since I am married to a chiropractor I don’t EVER have back pain, that I have a BEAUTIFUL spine, and la da da…well, not exactly. I met Nick in 2009, and I was diagnosed with a Phase 1 subluxation…borderline phase 2. My spine was as straight as a rod…and I have a congenital scoliosis in my mid-back. Not the “ideal chiropractor’s wife spine”…sorry to disappoint. We have made AMAZING changes so far (I literally started crying when I saw my most recent progress x-rays, I was so happy)…but as magical as my husband (or ANY chiropractor for that matter) is…he’s not a magician…and in order for him to do his job the best he can, I NEED to stop hurting myself!!!! Which in short means (because after many, many discussions, we both believe is mainly related to my irritated guts)…I need to stop messing up my guts, and I need to KEEP working on PERFECTING my form in the gym (and in life for that matter!).

I started the candida diet on June 25th, and then decided to have some homemade coconut ice cream this past Saturday (that would be TOTALLY okay if I were not doing the candida) that was topped with homemade whipped cream (this would NOT be okay even if I WASN’T doing the candida) and let me tell you…that whipped cream EFFED me. I have been feeling it since Saturday. Yesterday was a workout with burpees and pull-ups (my two biggest offenders)…so last night I was laying in bed, complaining and whimpering because my back was in so much pain. I’m frustrated. I feel like I should be stronger, I feel like I should be able to go faster, I feel like I should be able to do MORE reps; it’s hard to do that when you start progressing, then jack yourself, you know?

Let me tell you THIS much…I am SO grateful that I AM married to a chiropractor…I can’t imagine doing this, and learning this journey without my sweet, sweet husband to clean up after me. Tip, however: do not use your chiropractor as a custodian for your injuries and then wonder why you’re not getting the results you want. Clean up your own messes, prevent messes, and do what your chiropractor says!

Anyway, the point of this post was a vent, mostly. I needed to be honest and “out” myself…I DON’T, yet, have a perfect spine…I don’t, yet, do the movements perfectly…and I still hurt myself…kind of often :-\ I, too, am working on my health everyday. I, too, am on this journey with you.